Diaspora Copied Google Plus! Not!!

Or so people say and will say. Now that Google+ is in open beta, there is an influx of users joining the Google Plus network. These millions of people are mostly non-techies, non-FLOSS (ie Free/Libre Open-Source Software) advocates, non-privacy centred individuals.

These new Google Plus users are your ordinary Interweb users who are content and happy that there are free-of-charge online services that they can use. So they can connect to their family, relatives, friends, colleagues, read news, and share everything about themselves. They’re the millions of people testing G+ today.

What’s next? They will start seeing other social-networks and µblogs (microblogs). That’s what’s next. And with that comes the typical and very familiar words “{Company/Product} copied {Company/Product}!”

But should you believe it? No, not one second. Why? Simple: no one copied whoever – not Google+ and definitely notDiaspora.

Before you join the copied-bandwagon and start educating spreading false conclusions assumptions, consider these things.

Diaspora first went public (with source code) back in 2010, November to be exact

Google+ went public in June of 2011

It is near impossible to develop a social-network of the scale of Diaspora and Google Plus in a period to allow one to copy the other

Diaspora can not have copied G+ because there was no source code or any other information about it before Google Plus went public

Diaspora can not have copied G+ because its layout and features have been in placed already when it first went public

These two projects have been under development for some time already, a year to three at most

I sound like I am defending Diaspora here. No, it’s just that there are more valid reasons and facts that can be confirmed to defend it than Google Plus. Some of it are:

Diaspora is a Free/Libre Open-Source Software – and as such anyone can freely run it privately, look at the code, play with it

Diaspora came out first, again back in 2010. Giving G+ enough months to change its UI (User Interface) and UX (User eXperience)

In other words there is a greater possibility that Google Plus got most of its features and design from Diaspora. But is it fair to say that? For me personally, no. We don’t even know what the project development length of Google for G+. Besides, whether Google+ copied D* or not, it still does not matter. What matters is that:

the users (that’s YOU and me) now have plenty of options to choose from

What is Federation? Simple: being able to communicate with the users of another software and/or platform freely and completely. Imagine not needing to create “yet another” social network account because your friend or customers are using something else.

Imagine your friends and family staying with Google Plus but you can still communicate with each other even though you are using Friendika. That is Federation and you can not deny that your mind is telling you right now: that is sooo awesome.

Go try it yourself, sign-up at Diasp.org or Friendica. Add/follow people from one software/platform and communicate with them all you want, then tell me it isn’t the future of the social-web.